Opening the wallet: Grading Cade Cunningham’s lucrative contract extension with the Detroit Pistons

The Detroit Pistons emphatically identified the cornerstone of their franchise, agreeing to a five-year, $226 million extension, as first reported by The Athletic. It’s an enormous financial commitment given to the first pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. We’ll grade the deal for Cunningham and Detroit as they look to rebuild. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

It’s hard to view this as anything but a massive win for Cunningham. The boatload of money is essentially a reward for sticking through the turbulent first three years of his NBA career. Given Detroit’s lack of success, it didn’t seem like a given that Cunningham would receive this type of extension, although NBC Sports thought it was a possibility.

It’s a high-risk, high-reward move for Detroit. They’ve had one of the worst teams in the NBA since Cunningham came into the league, but this contract offer leads fans to believe they don’t think it’s remotely his fault. If Cunningham becomes the type of player that he’s shown flashes of, this deal might very well be worth it, even if it’s difficult to see now.

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When Cunningham suits up for opening night of the 2024-2025 campaign, he will be playing for his third head coach in four NBA seasons. Dwayne Casey didn’t fare too well in the first two years, and Monty Williams had nothing short of a disastrous season in 2023-2024. Detroit fans are hoping that J.B. Bickerstaff can help right the ship.

According to ESPN, Bickerstaff’s contract spans for five seasons. Of course, a long term pact didn’t mean much to Monty Williams, who was axed after just one year. Still, it’s hard to believe that the Pistons would part ways with another coach next year, so it’s incumbent on Bickerstaff and Cunningham to find a way out of the doldrums in Detroit.

The Pistons set the NBA record for consecutive losses last season, dropping 28 straight contests. They lost a game to the Boston Celtics that they led by a comfortable margin at halftime towards the end of that streak. Cunningham, ever the optimist, told ESPN after that defeat, “I think it shows like we’re on the same level as all these teams we’re playing against.”

It would have been really easy and understandable for the prized young player to snap in front of the media or lose his composure during one of the most difficult seasons for any team in recent memory. He told Bleacher Report that the losing streak was one of the most humbling experiences of his life, but he didn’t run from the pressure or embarrassment.

The Detroit Free Press wrote a piece in April highlighting Cunningham’s torrid stretch at the end of a moribund campaign for the franchise. Teammate Tosan Evbuomwan said in the article, “He’s our leader. It’s been that way the whole time I’ve been here. He shows it on a nightly basis and he’s only getting better.”

Cunningham finished his third NBA season with averages of over 22 points, seven assists and four rebounds per contest. He also shot nearly 87 percent from the free throw line, and shot a career-high 35 percent from three point range. It shows the type of versatile skill-set Cunningham has.

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On such a bad roster, though, it’s tough to definitively peg Cunningham as anything but a supremely talented unknown. It’s hard to tell whether he could be the best player on a title team, or more of a secondary or third option on a good team. The Pistons are betting on the fact that he could blossom into one of the game’s best.